About color groups

A color group is an organization tool that lets you group together related color swatches in the Swatches panel. In addition, a color group can be a container for color harmonies, which you create using the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box or the Color Guide panel. Color groups can contain only solid colors that include spot, process, or global colors. Gradients and patterns cannot be grouped.

You can use the Color Guide panel or the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box to create harmonious color groups. Using either feature, you can choose a harmony rule to instantly generate a color scheme based on any color you want. For example, choose the Monochromatic harmony rule to create a color group containing all the same hue, but with different saturation levels. Or choose the High Contrast or Pentagram harmony rule to create a color group with contrasting colors for more visual impact.

Color Guide panel overview

Use the Color Guide panel as a
tool for color inspiration while you create your artwork. The Color
Guide panel suggests harmonious colors based on the current color
in the Tools panel. You can use these colors to color artwork, or
you can edit them in the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box,
or save them as swatches or swatch groups in the Swatches panel.

You can manipulate the colors that the Color Guide panel generates
in several ways, including changing the harmony rule, or adjusting
the variation type (such as tints and shades or vivid and muted),
and the number of variation colors that appear.

Note: If
you have artwork selected, clicking a color variation changes the
color of the selected artwork, just like clicking a swatch in the
Swatches panel.

To edit the selected color group, make sure that no artwork
is selected and click the Edit Colors button . To
edit the selected color group and apply the edits to selected artwork,
click the Edit Or Apply Colors button . For
more information, see Edit
colors in the Edit Colors dialog box.

Specify the type of color variations
that appear in the panel

Choose one of the following variations from
the Color Guide panel menu:

Show Tints/Shades

Adds black to variations on the left and white to variations
on the right

Show Warm/Cool

Adds red to variations on the left and blue to variations
on the right

Show Vivid/Muted

Decreases the saturation toward gray in variations on the left
and increases saturation toward gray in variations on the right

Notă:

If
you’re using spot colors, use only the Tints/Shades variation and
choose colors from the tint (right) side of the variation grid.
All other variations cause spot colors to be converted to process.

Specify the number and range of
color variations that appear in the panel

Choose Color Guide Options from the Color Guide panel menu.

Specify the number of colors you want to appear to the left
and right of each color in the generated color group. For example,
choose 6 if you want to see six shades darker and six shades lighter
of each color.

The original colors always appear down the
center of the panel with a triangle directly above them, and the
variations on those colors appear to the left and right of them.

Drag the Range slider to the left to decrease the variance
range or drag to the right to increase the range.

Decreasing
the range generates colors that are more similar to the originals.

Adjusting the range of color variations

Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog
box overview

The name of this dialog
box changes depending on context:

When you have artwork selected and you access the dialog box
by clicking the icon
in the Control panel, Swatches panel, or Color Guide panel, or when you
choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork, the dialog box
opens as the Recolor Artwork dialog box and you have access to the
Assign tab and the Edit tab.

When you do not have artwork selected and you access the dialog
box by clicking the icon
in the Control panel, Swatches panel, or Color Guide panel, the
dialog box opens as the Edit Colors dialog box and you have access
to the Edit tab only.

Regardless of which name appears at the top of the dialog box,
the right side of it always displays the color groups for the current
document, along with two default color groups: Print Color and Grayscale.
You can select and use these color groups at anytime.

A. Create and edit a color group in the Edit tab B. Assign
colors in the Assign tab C. Select
a color group from the Color Groups list

The Recolor Art option at the bottom of the dialog box lets you
preview colors on selected artwork, and specifies whether artwork
is recolored when you close the dialog box.

The main areas of the dialog box are:

Edit

Use the Edit tab to create new color groups or edit existing
color groups. Use the Harmony Rules menu and the color wheel to
experiment with color harmonies. The color wheel shows you how colors
in a harmony are related, while the color bars let you see and manipulate
individual color values. In addition, you can adjust brightness,
add and remove colors, save color groups, and preview the colors
on selected artwork.

Assign

Use the Assign tab to view and control how colors from a
color group replace original colors in your artwork. You can assign
colors only if you have artwork selected in the document. You can
specify which new colors replace which current colors, whether spots
are preserved, and how colors are replaced (for example, you can
replace colors entirely or replace hue while retaining brightness).
Use Assign to control how artwork is recolored with the current
color group or to reduce the number of colors in the current artwork.

Color Groups

Lists all saved color groups for the open document (these
same color groups appear in the Swatches panel). While in the dialog
box, you can edit, delete, and create new color groups using the
Color Groups list. All your changes are reflected in the Swatches
panel. The selected color group denotes which color group is currently
being edited. You can select any color group and edit it or use
it to recolor selected artwork. Saving a color group adds the group
to this list.

Open the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork
dialog box

Open the Edit
Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box from any of the following locations:

Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor
Artwork or Recolor With Presets command

Use these commands when you want to edit colors in selected
artwork.

Recolor Artwork button in
Control panel

Use this button when you want to edit the colors of the selected
artwork using the Recolor Artwork dialog box. This button is available
when the selected artwork contains two or more colors.

note: Editing
colors this way is a convenient way to globally adjust colors in artwork
when global colors weren't used in the artwork's creation.

Edit Colors or Edit Or Apply Colors button in
Color Guide panel

Click this button when you want to edit the colors in the
Color Guide panel, or edit and then apply the colors in the Color
Guide panel to selected art.

Edit Color Group or Edit Or Apply Color Group button in
Swatches panel

Click this button when you want to edit the colors in the
selected color group, or when you want to edit the colors and apply
them to the selected artwork. You can also double-click a color
group in the Swatches panel to open the dialog box.

Work with the Color Group list

To show or hide the Color Group list, click the
Hide Color Group Storage icon on
the right side of the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box. To display
the list again, click the icon again.

To add a new color group to this list, create or edit a color
group, and then click New Color Group . A
new color group appears in the list.

To edit a color group, click it in the list to select it.
Change the color group using the Edit tab, and then click Save Changes
To Color Group .

To delete a color group, select it and click Delete
ColorGroup .

Create color groups

You can create color groups using the Color Guide panel or the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box. You can also create and share color groups on the Adobe Color Themes website.

Create a color group in the Color
Guide panel

Make sure that no artwork
is selected when you set the base color; otherwise, the selected
artwork will change to the base color.

Open the Color Guide panel, and do any of the following
to set the base color for the color harmony:

Click
a color swatch in the Swatches panel.

Click a color in the Color panel. (You may want to drag out
the Color panel so that you can use it along with the Color Guide
panel.)

Double-click the Fill Color in the Tools panel and pick a
color in the Color Picker.

Using the eyedropper, click artwork containing the color
you want.

Select artwork containing the color you want, and then click
the Set Base Color To The Current Color icon .

Click a color variation in the Color Guide panel, and then
click the Set Base Color To The Current Color icon .

Choose a rule from the Harmony Rules menu.

Notă:

To confine
colors to a swatch library, click the Limits The Color Group To Colors
In A Swatch Library button , and
choose library from the list.

To save the color group or an individual color to the Swatches
panel, do one of the following:

To save the current
color group in the Color Guide panel, click the Save Color Group
To Swatches Panel button .

To save one or more color variations as individual swatches,
drag the colors from the Color Guide panel to the Swatches panel.

To save multiple color variations as a group, select them
in the Color Guide panel and click the Save Color Group To Swatches
Panel button .

To
name the new group, select the group in the Swatches panel and choose Color
Group Options from the panel menu.

Notă:

To upload your color group swatch to the Adobe Color website, select it and choose Window > Adobe Color Themes. In the panel, click Upload . You must sign in using your Adobe ID to upload swatches.

To color your artwork with a color from the color group,
select your artwork and click any color in the Color Guide panel.

Create a color group in the Edit
Colors dialog box

You create a color group in the Edit
Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box by choosing a base color and a
harmony rule. The harmony rule uses the base color as the basis
for generating the colors in the color group. For example, if you choose
a blue base color and the Complementary harmony rule, a color group
is created using the base color, blue, and its complement, red.

As you manipulate the colors in the color wheel, the selected
harmony rule continues to govern the colors that are generated for
the group. To break the harmony rule and edit the colors freely,
click the Unlink button .

Open
the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box, and choose a color harmony from
the Harmony Rules menu, if desired.

Notă:

To confine colors
to a swatch library, click the Limits The Color Group To Colors
In A Swatch Library button , and
choose a library from the list.

If the color bars are showing, click a Color Wheel icon to
display the color wheel instead.

Set the base color by doing one of the following:

Drag the base color marker (the largest, double-ringed color
marker) around the wheel to set the base color you want.

Adjust the color sliders at the bottom of the dialog box.

Choose a new harmony rule or move the color markers, as desired.

To preview the new colors on selected artwork, click Recolor Art.

Notă:

Recolor Art will recolor selected artwork when you
click OK to close the dialog box. If you don’t want to recolor the
selected art, make sure to deselect this option before clicking
OK.

Type a name in the Name box to the right of the Harmony Rules
menu, and click New Color Group .

Notă:

if
the New Color Group icon is not visible,
click the Show Color Group Storage icon .

To save the new color group to the Swatches panel, click OK and close the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box.

Edit colors in the Edit Colors
dialog box

Editing colors in the
Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box is a convenient way to globally
adjust the colors in selected artwork. It is especially useful when global
colors weren't originally used in the artwork’s creation. You can
edit colors and color groups in the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork
dialog box and apply your edits to selected artwork, or save the
edited colors for later use.

When editing colors, you use the smooth color wheel, the segmented
color wheel, or the color bars.

Edit colors by moving color markers on the smooth color
wheel

Smooth color wheel

Displays hue, saturation, and brightness in a smooth continuous
circle. Each color in the current color group is drawn on the wheel inside
a circle. This wheel lets you choose from numerous colors with great precision,
but it can be hard to see individual colors because every pixel
is a different color.

Segmented color wheel

Displays colors as a set of segmented color patches. This
wheel makes it easy to see individual colors, but doesn’t provide
as many colors to choose from as the continuous wheel.

Color bars

Displays only colors from the color group. They appear as
solid bars of color that you can select and edit individually. You
can reorganize colors in this display by dragging and dropping color
bars to the left or right. You can right-click a color and choose
to remove it, set it as the base color, change its shade, or change
it using the Color Picker.

Save changes to a color group

Before you start editing your color groups, make sure that
you know how to save your changes correctly so you don’t inadvertently
overwrite your favorite color group! You have two options when saving
your changes: you can overwrite the original color group with the
edited color group, or you can create a new color group with the
changes, leaving the original intact.

Do either of the following:

To keep your
original color group unchanged and save the changes as a new color
group, click New Color Group at
the top of the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box.

To save the changes to your original color group (thus overwriting
the original color group), click Save Changes To Color Group .

Edit a color group using a color
wheel

In the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork
dialog box, select the desired color group from the Color Groups
storage area, if necessary.

If you have selected an object on the artboard, click Recolor
Art to preview the colors on the artwork. If you don’t want to recolor
the artwork, deselect Recolor Art before closing the dialog box,
or click Cancel to close it.

Notă:

To edit the colors of the
selected artwork, click Get Colors From Selected Art .

To confine colors to a swatch library, click the Limits The
Color Group To Colors In A Swatch Library button and
choose a library from the list.

To change the base color to a different color in the current
group, right-click the color in a color wheel or color bars and
choose Set As Base Color. Or click a color in the Active Colors
box, and then click Set Current Color As Base Color to
the left of the Active Colors box.

Drag a marker on the wheel to change its color. If the harmony
is linked, all the colors move according to the rule as you drag.
If the harmony is unlinked, only the marker that you drag moves.

While
editing, you can do any of the following:

To change hue, move the marker around the wheel. To change saturation or brightness, move it inward and outward on the wheel.

To change hue, move the marker around the wheel. To change saturation or brightness, move it inward and outward on the wheel.

To add a color, right-click in the color wheel where you want to add the color and choose Add New Color.

To remove a color, right-click on the color marker (or the line of the marker) in the color wheel and choose Remove Color.

To change a color using the Color Picker, right-click the color and choose Color Picker.

To constrain the marker to move in only one direction, hold down the shift key as you drag.

To see hue and saturation instead of hue and brightness on the wheel, click the Show Saturation And Hue On The Wheel button , directly below the wheel to toggle between the two views.

To change the color values manually, click the color marker or click the color in the Active Colors box. Edit the color values using the sliders or color value text boxes under the color wheel.

To change the saturation and brightness of a color on the wheel, right-click a color marker, and choose Select Shade; then click the desired color in the box that appears.

Save your changes by clicking New Color Group , which
keeps your original color group unchanged and saves the changes
as a new color group. Or click Save Changes To Color Group to
overwrite your original color group with the changes.

Notă:

To ensure that the colors are in gamut or web safe, select
each color marker and click the Out Of Gamut or
Out Of Web buttons
as necessary.

Reorder colors in a color group

Do one of the following:

In the Active
Colors menu, drag a color left or right.

In Color Bars view, drag a color bar left or right.

Edit an individual color in a color
group

When you use
a harmony rule to create a color group, the colors are linked by default.
When a color group is linked, editing one color changes the other
colors according to the harmony rule. To edit one color without
changing the others, unlink the color markers from the harmony rule.

In the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box, select the color group you want to edit and click Edit.

Click the Unlink Harmony Colors icon .

Do one of the following in either the color wheel or color
bar view:

Drag the color marker you want to edit
to set a new color.

Click the color bar or color marker you want to change and
manually edit the color values.

Double-click (or right-click) the color bar or marker and
choose a new color in the Color Picker.

Right-click a color marker or color bar and pick a new shade.

To relink the colors so that the markers move again according
to the newly defined harmony rule, click the Link Harmony Colors
button.

Edit colors in a color group using
the Color Picker

You can use the Color Picker to change
colors in a color group.

In the Edit
Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box, do one of the following:

Double-click a wheel marker or right-click a wheel marker
and choose Color Picker.

Double-click a color bar.

Click the color swatch to the left of the color sliders.

Save the edits by doing one of the following:

To save the edited colors as a new group, type a new name
in the name box at the top of the dialog box, and then click New
Color Group .

To save the edits to the original color group, click Save
Changes To Color Group .

Randomly change color order or
saturation and brightness

In the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box, you can
explore random variations of the current color group by using the
Randomly Assign Brightness And Saturation button and the Randomly
Change Color Order button.

In the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box, select
a color group.

Click Edit, and then click Display Color Bars; or click Assign.

Do either of the following:

To shuffle the
order of the current color group, click Randomly Change Color Order . Use
this button when recoloring artwork to quickly explore the different
ways artwork can be recolored with the current color group.

To randomly change the brightness and saturation of the current
color group while retaining the hues, click Randomly Changes Saturation
and Brightness .

Globally edit saturation, brightness,
temperature, or luminosity

In the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box, click Edit.

Click the Color Mode button , and choose Global Adjust.

Change the values for Saturation, Brightness, Temperature,
and Luminosity.

Notă:

If you’ve limited the colors to a swatch
library, any adjustments you make are limited to the library colors.

Add or remove colors in a color
group

In the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box, click Edit.

Do either of the following:

To add a color
to the color group, right-click in the color wheel where you want
to add the color and choose Add New Color.
If you click the line of an existing color marker, the new marker
moves with that marker.

To remove a color, right-click the color marker or color
bar and choose Remove Color. You cannot remove the base color marker.

note: In
the color wheel, you can also use the Add Color Tool button or
the Remove Color Tool button , and
then click in the color wheel on the color you want to add or remove.

To remove a color from a color group in the Color Groups
list, expand the color group, right-click the color swatch you want
to remove, and choose Remove Color.

Delete a color group

Select a color group in the Color Groups list and click Delete . Or right-click and choose Remove Color Group.

Assign colors to your artwork

The Assign tab of the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog
box lets you assign colors from a color group to your artwork. You
can assign colors in the following ways:

Assign new colors
to your artwork using a color group from the Color Groups list.

Assign new colors to your artwork using a new color group
chosen from the Harmony Rules menu.

Reassign current artwork colors among themselves. You can
reset the Edit Colors/Recolor Artwork dialog box so that the artwork
is displayed with its original colors by clicking Get Colors From
Selected Art .

Using the Current Colors and New columns, you control how colors
are assigned. When you select Recolor Art, the selected artwork
is recolored with the active color group according to the columns
assignments.

Original artwork colors (left), assigning new colors by selecting
a color group in the Color Groups list (center), and assigning new
colors by creating a new color group using the Harmony Rules menu
(right).

A. Active color group B. Get Colors
From Selected Art C. Colors from selected
artwork D. New colors from active
color group E. Options for working
with entire rows F. Recolor Artwork

Assign new colors to selected artwork

Select
the artwork you want to recolor.

Choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork.

The Recolor Artwork dialog box opens, displaying the Assign area with colors from the original artwork in both columns.

If you want to assign colors from a color group, do one of
the following:

Choose a color group from the Color Groups list.

Create a color group by selecting a new harmony rule from the menu from the Harmony Rules menu.

Notă:

If you create a color
group, you can click Edit to fine-tune the colors, and then click
Assign. Or, if you want to adjust a few colors in the selected artwork, select
the color you want to adjust and edit it with the color sliders.

To preview the color changes in your artwork, click Recolor Art.

Do any of the following to reassign colors:

To assign a current color to a different color, drag the current color up or down in the Current Colors column until it’s adjacent to the new color you want.

Tip: If a row contains multiple colors and you want to move them all, click the selector bar at the left of the row and drag up or down.

To assign a new color to a different row of current colors, drag the new color up or down in the New column. (To add a new color to or remove a color from the New column, right-click in the list and choose Add New Color or Remove Color.)

To change a color in the New column, right-click it and choose Color Picker to set a new color.

To exclude a row of current colors from being reassigned, click the arrow between the columns. To include it again, click the dash.

To exclude a single current color from being reassigned, right-click the color and choose Exclude Colors, or click the icon .

To randomly reassign colors, click the Randomly Change Color Order button . The new colors move randomly to different rows of current colors.

To add a row to the Current Colors column, right-click and choose Add New Row, or click the icon .

To separate or merge colors in the Current Colors row, do
either of the following:

To separate colors into separate rows, select the color block you want to move and right-click and choose Separate Colors Into Different Rows, or click the icon .

To merge colors into one row, Shift-click to select multiple colors, and then right-click and choose Merge Colors Into A Row, or click the icon .

To change tints or shades of new colors, click the triangle next to the right of a new color (or right-click a color and choose Colorize Method), and choose an option. Select Apply To All if you want the same option to apply to all new colors in the color group.

Notă:

Tints
And Shades and Hue Shift are only available when you choose not
to preserve spot colors.

Click OK to recolor the artwork. If you don’t want to recolor the artwork, click Cancel, or deselect Recolor Artwork and click OK.

Randomly change saturation and
brightness in all colors

You
can also change saturation and brightness when editing a color group using
the Color Bars display.

View original colors in your artwork
as you assign new colors

When you recolor selected artwork, the colors in the selected
color group replace the original colors. When assigning new colors,
it helps to see where an original color (from the Current Colors
column) appears in your artwork, especially if your artwork is very
detailed, or contains many original colors.

In the Recolor Artwork dialog box, click the Click On Colors
Above To Find Them In Artwork button , and
then click a color in the Current Colors column.

The artwork
that uses that color appears in full color on the artboard while
all other areas of the selected artwork are dimmed.

Click the icon again to return your artwork to full color.

Reduce colors in your artwork

Reducing colors for output,
converting colors to grayscale, or limiting colors to a color library
is often necessary when you create artwork intended for multiple types
of output media. You can easily reduce the number of colors in your artwork
using the Recolor Artwork dialog box. You can choose whether to
use a preset for reducing colors, for example, you can choose Grayscale
Art to quickly convert your selected artwork to grayscale.

Reducing selected artwork to two colors

Quickly reduce colors using a preset

Reducing your colors
by using a preset is a quick and easy way to limit your artwork
to a specific number of colors or a swatch library.

If you want to limit colors to a swatch library, click the library button , select the library you want, and then click OK.

If you don’t want to limit colors to a swatch library, click OK.

The Recolor Artwork dialog box opens. The New
column displays the number of colors you chose as your preset, plus
black. The new colors are taken from your original artwork.

Assign your original colors to the new colors as desired.

Make sure that Recolor Art is selected, and click OK.

Reduce colors using custom options

Select
the artwork you want to recolor.

Choose Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork.

The Recolor Artwork dialog box opens. The New column displays all the colors from your selected artwork.

To use different colors, select or create a color group.

Choose the number of colors you want to reduce down to from
the Colors menu.

Click the Color Reduction Options button , specify
any of the following options, and click OK:

Preset

Specifies a preset color job, including the number of colors
used and optimal settings for that job. If you select a preset and
then change any of the other options, the preset changes to Custom.

Colors

Specifies the number of new colors that the current colors
are reduced to.

Limit To Library

Specifies a swatch library from which all new colors are derived.

Sort

Determines how the original colors are sorted in the Current
Colors column.

Colorize Method

Specifies the types of variations allowed for the new colors.

Exact exactly replaces each current color with the specified
new color.

Scale Tints (default option) replaces the darkest current
color in the row with the specified new color. Other current colors
in the row are replaced with a proportionally lighter tint.

Preserve Tints is the same as Scale Tints for non-global
colors. For spot or global colors, it applies the current color’s
tint to the new color. Use Preserve Tints when all the current colors
in the row are tints of the same or similar global color. For best
results when using Preserve Tints, also select Combine Tints.

Tints And Shades replaces the current color with the average
lightness and darkness with the specified new color. Current colors
that are lighter than the average are replaced with a proportionally
lighter tint of the new color. Current colors that are darker than
the average are replaced by adding black to the new color.

Hue Shift sets the most typical color in the Current Colors
row as a key color and exactly replaces the key color with the new
color. The other current colors are replaced by colors that differ
from the new color in brightness, saturation, and hue by the same
amounts that the current color differs from the key color.

Combine Tints

Sorts all tints of the same global color into the same Current Colors
row, even if colors are not being reduced. Use this option only
when the selected art contains global or spot colors applied at
tints less than 100%. For best results, use in combination with
the Preserve Tints colorization method.

note: Even when Combine
Tints is not selected, color reduction combines tints of the same
global color before it combines different non-global colors.

Preserve

Determines whether white, black, or gray is preserved in
the final reduction. If a color is preserved, it appears in the
Current Colors column as an excluded row.